"We have a high rate of melanoma in our state ... and have been performing dual-phase [arterial- and portal-venous phase CT] for all patients with a diagnosis of melanoma," said Dr. Nicole Winkler from the University of Utah. "In practice, we have not had much yield from the addition of an arterial phase, so we decided to formally evaluate its usefulness."
The retrospective study included 100 patients, half with and half without metastatic melanoma, who underwent dual-phase CT of the liver, including late hepatic arterial and portal-venous phases. In no case was the metastatic disease only apparent on arterial-phase imaging. There were 10 cases in which hepatic lesions were only visible on the arterial phase or were much more conspicuous on the arterial phase, but all of these were benign, according to the researchers.
"We are no longer performing dual-phase CT for this population as a result of this study, reducing radiation exposure and radiologist interpretation time," Winkler said.
